Category Archives: Handicap

Looking For More HOA Corruption Evidence?

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It’s amazing how many homeowners don’t have a clue about the extent of organized corruption in the whole Homeowners Association industry.

Las Vegas? The feds convict 43 HOA ‘insiders’ for stealing 60 million dollars.

South Carolina? Well, this one is interesting. Up to five dozen Homeowners Associations have joined in a lawsuit against one of the state’s largest HOA management companies. Once again, endemic corruption. These homeowners have absolutely no idea how much has been stolen from them. The owner of the company admits she was stealing. Tears. Sobs. Regret that she got caught.

Folks, this same kind of corruption is an infection on a massive scale. It exists only because of crooked deals made between land developers and public officials.

“Ah, but my HOA is one of the honest ones!”

Really?

(link to ABC News affiliate in South Carolina)

 

But My HOA Protects My Property Values!

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If you believe that, then you’re visiting the wrong shrink!

No, Your HOA absolutely does not protect your property values. Your HOA is there to keep track of your net worth. Your net worth (not just your home value) is pledged to a community pool which can be used whenever necessary to cover the cost of lawsuits, repairs, maintenance, insurance, embezzling board members.

All neighborhoods age, that’s just a fact of life. But developers get special breaks for cramming more homes into smaller spaces, and often those developers are just self-centered and financially motivated to cut corners. Meanwhile, building inspectors look the other way knowing it’ll be years before construction problems start becoming apparent.

When a mortgage or financial crisis hits and HOAs don’t maintain the common areas wild things start happening. A few homeowners lose their homes. Then a few more. Suddenly, there’s not enough money in the budget to maintain the common areas. More homes or condos are turned into rentals. Crime increases. More lawsuits are filed. Then it gets especially messy as the entire neighborhood collapses. Who’s still around to claim, “Our HOA protects property values?”

A prime example is linked below:

(Georgia condo complex gets trashed)

 

 

Major HOA Legal Implications!

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It looks like our side won a small but significant legal battle. A federal judge has ruled that a debt collector’s law firm can be held liable when it presents false information received from the client. The debt collector had inflated its claim against a homeowner by thousands of dollars, the same thing HOA debt collectors do all over the country. Finally! Finally, a law firm gets smacked for false representation!

Now we need a case where the HOA itself is also found liable for hiring crooked debt collectors who use crooked lawyers.

(link to law firm that wins legal ruling) 

 

HOA Housing Craziness In Aspen!

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I’ve written about this before. But here’s another great column from the Aspen Times. Wages are so out-of-control in this Eastern Hollywood Town, that the City of Aspen is using taxpayers’ money to pay for the maintenance of Homeowners Associations where all the ‘low-income’ workers live. The whole system is warped in more ways than can be easily discussed. But the columnist linked below does a pretty good job.

Homeowners Associations are a national scandal waiting to burst. But making the taxpayer pay the cost of keeping this scam going is just stretching the imagination too far.

(link to Aspen Times story on taxpayer funded HOAs)

 

 

Sara Benson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Egads! I’ve never met Sara Benson, never even talked to her on the phone, but I’d have an affair with her in an instant, if she’d agree! (Yep, I’m not very classy, but I’m sincere!)

This incredible Illinois Realtor has discovered that up to 80% of Illinois Homeowners Associations are unknown and untracked by the state! The implications are massive. It means that huge numbers of Americans have signed away their access to rights conferred by the U.S. Constitution by buying homes in private corporations where they’re lying naked in front of all their fellow homeowners. They think they’ve bought private homes, but what they’ve actually bought is shares in unregulated corporations in which they can be taxed, liened, sued and bankrupted with their life savings going into a common pot owned by all their fellow neighbors.

It’s the biggest transfer of private property wealth to government in the history of America. Seductive. Illegal. Subversive. There just aren’t words enough to express it. I thought I was pretty smart about the evils of Homeowners Associations. I hate to admit it, but I didn’t have a clue. Not a clue.

This should be the Number One headline in every news organization in America. Sadly, it won’t be. I love America, but Americans are fundamentally stupid. Like the frog in the pot we just enjoy the increasing heat. Until it’s too hot.

Sara Benson and Don DeBat, I hope you sell a zillion copies of Escaping Condo Jail!.

(link to Chicago Tribune article on Sara Benson)